TNA: Replay!

By now, everybody knows that TNA had at one time crossed the Monday line. iMPACT! used to crawl along as it did battle with WWE RAW. For better (eventually), or worse, TNA's flagship show was on a Monday time slot.

An Accidental Situation

Something that not many people talked about actually happened. TNA actually created a pretty big void on Thursday nights.

iMPACT! has been missed on the Thursday time slot. As ironic as it sounds, Mondays have always been pro wrestling days, but Thursdays obviously have become the adopted cousin for pro wrestling.

This really proved to be true when TNA ran their Monday impacts on Thursdays for a couple of weeks. It showed that, even with the live product on Mondays, for whatever reason they could still pull numbers with the same content on the Thursday.

Remember, as far as American viewing numbers go, Spike was actually quite pleased with the growth of TNA on Thursdays. The replays may have created an opportunity if somebody could grasp the idea.

TNA: Replay

Perhaps TNA should bring back Replay. Wait, apologies.

Perhaps TNA should introduce Replay. The second show the company really needs.

Sixty minutes. 120 minutes. Either or.

The taping schedule wouldn't even have to be adjusted, and you wouldn't even have to produce an entirely fresh show either.

Simply take the dark matches filmed prior to the official Impact start, sprinkle in some of the matches normally used for the web match format, and then tape 4 or 5 matches + promos fresh for the show with a roster that doesn't have enough room on Mondays (coming back to this idea).

This can be done on a slightly extended pre-recorded Tuesday taping.

If need be, you can even throw in the "best match from Monday night" just to make sure people see it.

Stealing talent

The only real adjustment that would need to be made is talent assignment. TNA doesn't really have a roster big enough to front two exclusive rosters. At the same time, you don't want to burn your top guys out so there has to be some sort of staggering.

The top flight guys need to remain fresh, and most of them are going to work both days anyway. What you don't want is for your top level talent to have to work three times in two days.

Some of the roster will have to be exclusive to Thursdays, while others jump around between the two. This is not a problem at all, but instead it'd be the perfect solution.

Your Monday show would be fine. Nothing would really have to change there. The Thursday show would be used to even out 180 minutes made 120, (which is what TNA tries to do with iMPACT!).

Now you'd have all the people you want to push in positions to really get good, solid, slow-building pushes. You'd also have very marginal cost increases that would probably get balanced out by the extra premium commercial slot time.

Talent Tree

Back to the above area, you'd really need to get the talent organized properly, but who would fit? Lets break it down.

*These would be the guys that could appear on either show at will depending on what is needed. All champions, tag teams, and the KO division would also fall under this category.

Hogan - Sting - Flair - Jeff Jarrett

Bischoff - Mr. Anderson - Rob Van Dam - D'Angelo Dinero - Scott Hall

The Result:

What you'd get with this setup would be the ultimate Monday show with the flexibility to always have the hottest guys at your disposal along with the guys who should always be on Monday night even if they're doing things on Thursday nights too.

You'd also get programs with the time they need to develop along with a very strong X Division feel to the Thursday Show where challengers can be built up to head over to Monday and face the X Champion or, have the X Champion come over for a title defense on a Thursday.

You'd also give the Global Championship the required time to grow by having it be the exclusive full time men's title by itself.

The Knockouts would once again have the time, across two shows, to shine properly without being thinned out and as mentioned before, the X Division would have the time needed to rise again.

The Thursday show would be absolute Napalm as it wouldn't have to be as dramatic as the Flagship show, so it'd be more wrestling in itself while being able to show off the best from Monday, former Web Matches, or even some house show 5-star matches.

Closing Thoughts

A second show has been the topic of discussion for quite awhile. I think that this hybrid "second show / hype machine" concept would really explode and take advantage of the vacant Thursday night slot.

I also think it'd bring balance to the promotion and it would be the perfect concept needed to restore the importance of the X Title and the growth of the Legends / Global / Whatever they change it to Title.

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